[Includes issues of disability or different-ability. Includes the treatment of diseases and the ignoring of dangerous circumstances that will harm people. Also anything to do with the body, including representation.]
Almaaita, Zaynah. "Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018 - #22 Big Pharma’s Biostitutes: Corporate Media Ignore Root Cause of Opioid Crisis." Project Censored (October 2, 2018) ["The beginning of the opioid crisis, Martin reported, goes back to drug manufacturing companies hiring “biostitutes,” a derogatory term for biological scientists hired to misrepresent research or commit fraud in order to protect their employers’ corporate interests. As Martin reported, research by biostitutes was used to make the (misleading) case that opioids could treat pain without the risk of addiction. Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, and McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, which distribute that drug and other opioids, suppressed research that showed how addictive opioids are, and they began to push doctors to write more prescriptions on behalf of the “needs” of consumers. In particular, Papantonio said, distributors targeted the nation’s poorer communities, including industrial cities with high unemployment rates, such as Detroit, and economically-stressed mining communities, as in West Virginia. Such mercenary practices not only impacted the individuals who became addicted, they also ravaged the finances of the targeted cities and counties. As Papantonio told The Empire Files, the opioid crisis has required local government expenditures for everything from new training for emergency medical responders, to the purchase of Naloxone (sold under the brand name Narcan) for treating opioid overdoses, to the expansion of dependency courts to handle the cases of neglected or abused children, and the retooling of jails as de facto rehabilitation centers—all of which have come out of city and county budgets. In his Empire Files interview, Papantonio estimated that the cost for a “typical community” fell between “ninety and two hundred million dollars—that’s just the beginning number.”]
Anderson, Chloe and David Squires. "U.S. Healthcare from a Global Perspective: Spending, Use of Services, Prices, and Health in 13 Countries." The Commonwealth Fund (October 8, 2015) ["This analysis draws upon data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and other cross-national analyses to compare health care spending, supply, utilization, prices, and health outcomes across 13 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These data predate the major insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, the U.S. spent far more on health care than these other countries. Higher spending appeared to be largely driven by greater use of medical technology and higher health care prices, rather than more frequent doctor visits or hospital admissions. In contrast, U.S. spending on social services made up a relatively small share of the economy relative to other countries. Despite spending more on health care, Americans had poor health outcomes, including shorter life expectancy and greater prevalence of chronic conditions."]
Anderson, Warwick and Jim Yong Kim. "Public Health Across the Pacific." Open Source (April 30, 2020) ["There’s a shocking big truth in those coronavirus numbers – hidden in plain sight, as the saying goes. It comes down to this: China and various neighbors in East Asia beat the lethal virus to its knees months ago. It’s Europe and the US for the most part that inadvertently or not are pushing death tolls higher. Tabulate deaths per capita, and you see the new big picture: The New York State score so far would be 900 deaths per million New Yorkers; the Malaysia score would be 3. Massachusetts has lost 460 people per million; New Zealand 4. Connecticut has lost 600 people per million population. China: 3. First question to East Asia might be: why is your death-rate running roughly one percent of ours?"]
Arcana, Judith, et al. "Abortion Beyond Clinics: Beyond Jane." Making Contact (July 30, 2019) ["In this episode, we explore new safe at-home abortion options and the growing movement for “self-managed abortions.” Amidst changes to the Supreme Court of the United States, and after decades of restrictions to abortion access across the country, people continue to find ways to make this vital procedure safer, more affordable, and more accessible. Advances in medicine and discoveries made by women themselves have changed the kind of options available outside of clinics."]
Archer, Diane. "Here's What 22 Separate Studies Found: Medicare for All Would Cost Less Than the For-Profit Status Quo." Common Dreams (February 24, 2020) ["No matter how you design a single-payer public health insurance system, it would have lower overall health care costs, so long as for-profit private health insurers no longer exist to drive up health care costs."]
A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth about Factory Farms (USA: Don McCorckell, 2009: 91 mins)
Armstrong, Sally, Paul Heinbecker and James Orbinski. "Five Freedoms: Freedom from Want." Ideas (April 11, 2019) ["Poverty has always been a defining issue in the quest to build a better world. Most political systems lay claim to the idea that they alone can create a better world. It's a kind of litmus test: if our political systems can't raise almost everyone out of relative poverty, then what exactly have we achieved? Why poverty exists at all in otherwise wealthy, prosperous democratic countries is a very incisive question, and it's not enough to just shrug and say our system is still better than any other alternative. And those alternatives? Dictatorships take us into the abyss. Right-wing libertarianism has little to offer as solutions to poverty. Soviet-style Communism didn't exactly work either, which leaves some version of western liberal democracy, either what we have now, or some variation that is still to emerge. So once we've got past that, and accepted that we've failed on the poverty file, how do we go about making things more equitable right now, making sure that wealth is distributed to those in need, and creating opportunity for the weak to become stronger?"]
Beardsmore, Jo, Kelly Coogan-Gehr and Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini. "Medicare for All: As Healthcare Costs Soar, Momentum Grows to Guarantee Healthcare for All Americans." Democracy Now (November 30, 2018) ["As Democrats prepare to take control of the House, pressure is growing on the Democratic leadership to embrace Medicare for All. Nearly 50 newly Democratic members of Congress campaigned for Medicare for All. In the last year, 123 incumbent House Democrats also co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation, double the number who supported a Medicare for All bill in the previous legislative session. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical, insurance and hospital companies are paying close attention. As the Intercept’s Lee Fang reports, over the summer the groups formed a partnership to fight the growing support for expanding Medicare. We speak to three proponents of Medicare for All who have assembled in Burlington, Vermont, for a gathering of the Sanders Institute: Kelly Coogan-Gehr of National Nurses United, British anesthesiologist Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and organizer Jo Beardsmore."]
Berends, Andrew, et al. "The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans." Making Contact (July 1, 2009)
Blase, Martin. "Missing Microbes." Radio West (April 28, 2014) ["Your body is host to about 100 trillion bacterial cells that form your microbiome, the complex ecosystem of microorganisms on which your life depends. Today, our microbiomes are threatened by a loss of species diversity that could be our undoing. In a new book, Dr. Martin Blaser argues that our obsession with hygiene and overuse of antibiotics has bleached our microbiomes, making them weak and making us more susceptible to dangerous new diseases."]
Brea, Jennifer. "Unrest." Film School (October 7, 2017) ["Jennifer Brea is a Harvard PhD student soon to be engaged to the love of her life when she’s struck down by a mysterious fever that leaves her bedridden. She becomes progressively more ill, eventually losing the ability even to sit in a wheelchair, but doctors tell her it’s “all in her head.” Unable to convey the seriousness and depth of her symptoms to her doctor, Jennifer begins a video diary on her iPhone that eventually becomes the feature documentary film Unrest. Once Jennifer is diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome, she and her new husband, Omar, are left to grapple with how to live in the face of a lifelong illness. Refusing to accept the limitations of bedbound life, Jennifer goes on an inspiring virtual voyage around the world where she finds a hidden community of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME. These patients use the internet, Skype and Facebook to connect to each other — and to offer support and understanding. Many ME patients have experienced uncertainty, confusion and even disbelief from the medical community and society as a whole. After all, it’s easy to ignore a disease when patients are too sick to leave their homes. In Unrest, Jennifer shares her pain and the most intimate moments of her life in order to offer hope and visibility to those who suffer alone in dark, silent rooms. Though Jennifer and Omar may have to accept that they will never live the life they originally dreamed about, together they find resilience, strength, and meaning in their community and each other. Director, subject and activist Jennifer Brea joins us to talk about her journey, illness and her determination to make things better for people living with ME."]
Butler, Judith. "Capitalism Has Its Limits." Verso (March 20, 2020) ["One reason I voted for Sanders in the California primary along with a majority of registered Democrats is that he, along with Warren, opened up a way to re-imagine our world as if it were ordered by a collective desire for radical equality, a world in which we came together to insist that the materials that are required for life, including medical care, would be equally available no matter who we are or whether we have financial means. That policy would have established solidarity with other countries that are committed to universal health care, and so would have established a transnational health care policy committed to realizing the ideals of equality. The new polls emerge that narrow the national choice to Trump and Biden precisely as the pandemic shuts down everyday life, intensifying the precarity of the homeless, the uninsured, and the poor. The idea that we might become a people who wishes to see a world in which health policy is equally committed to all lives, to dismantling the market’s hold on health care that distinguishes among the worthy and those who can be easily abandoned to illness and death, was briefly alive. We came to understand ourselves differently as Sanders and Warren held out this other possibility. We understood that we might start to think and value outside the terms that capitalism sets for us. Even though Warren is no longer a candidate, and Sanders is unlikely to recover his momentum, we must still ask, especially now, why are we as a people still opposed to treating all lives as if they were of equal value? Why do some still thrill at the idea that Trump would seek to secure a vaccine that would safeguard American lives (as he defines them) before all others? The proposition of universal and public health reinvigorated a socialist imaginary in the US, one that must now wait to become realized as social policy and public commitment in this country. Unfortunately, in the time of the pandemic, none of us can wait. The ideal must now be kept alive in the social movements that are riveted less on the presidential campaign than the long term struggle that lies ahead of us. These courageous and compassionate visions mocked and rejected by capitalist “realists” had enough air time, compelled enough attention, to let increasing numbers – some for the first time – desire a changed world. Hopefully we can keep that desire alive, especially now when Trump proposes on Easter to lift constraints on public life and businesses and set the virus free. He wagers that the potential financial gains for the few will compensate for the increase in the number of deaths that are clearly predicted, which he accepts, and refuses to stop – in the name of national health. So now those with a social vision of universal health care have to struggle against both a moral and viral illness working in lethal tandem with one another."]
Cantarow, Ellen. "The New Eco-Devastation in Rural America." Tom Dispatch (May 20, 2012)
Charaborty, Ranjani. "The U.S. Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery." Vox (December 7, 2017)
Christina, Greta. "Wealthy, Handsome, Strong, Packing Endless Hard-Ons: The Impossible Ideals Men Are Expected to Meet." AlterNet (June 20, 2011)
Chutkan, Robynne. "The Future of Probiotics." The Atlantic (December 12, 2013) ["Hippocrates said that all disease begins in the gut. A gastroenterologist's predictions on how new treatments will begin there, too."]
Clark, Anna and Barry Meier. "The Opioid Narratives." On the Media (March 27, 2019) ["Purdue Pharma has settled a lawsuit with the state of Oklahoma for $270 million, a larger figure than two other cases the company has settled with other states. In doing so, the company also avoided a televised trial in May at a time when there's been growing public pressure on Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family, amid allegations that they misled the public about the dangers of OxyContin. Back in 2017, Bob spoke with Barry Meier about how public discourse about chronic pain and treatment have been shaped by companies like Purdue with help from physicians, consultants, and the media. Meier is a former reporter for The New York Times and author of Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death. Bob also interviewed journalist Anna Clark about her reporting for the Columbia Journalism Review on opioid-related death notices. Sites like Legacy.com, she explained, have often chronicled the crisis' individual human toll. "]
Cohn, Erika and Kelli Dillon. "'Belly of the Beast': Survivors of Forced Sterilizations in California’s Prisons Fight for Justice." Democracy Now (September 22, 2020) ["Revelations about forced hysterectomies at an ICE facility in Georgia have forced a reckoning with the long history of sterilizations in the U.S. — particularly of Black, Brown, poor and disabled people — and the way this procedure has continued in jails and prisons to the present day. We speak with Kelli Dillon, who was sterilized at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla in 2001 and who is featured in the documentary “Belly of the Beast,” which tells the stories of women subjected to unwanted sterilization behind bars in California. She says incarcerated women are “punished” for simply requesting medical records. “If we begin to press … we are reprimanded and sometimes put in lockdown,” says Dillon, who in 2006 became the first survivor of sterilization abuse to sue the California Department of Corrections for damages. Between 2006 and 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 women without required state approval. “Forced sterilization is genocide,” notes filmmaker Erika Cohn, who directed “Belly of the Beast” and spent nearly a decade making it. The film opens in theaters on October 16 and will premiere on PBS’s “Independent Lens” on November." Part 2: "New Film Links Forced Sterilization in California Prisons to Horrific History of Eugenics in U.S."]
Conis, Elena. "A Social History of Vaccination." Against the Grain (October 23, 2017) ["It’s stating the obvious to observe that vaccination in the United States is a highly charged subject. But the heat of the controversies, as historian Elena Conis argues, obscures how vaccination — which has saved many lives when used against deadly illnesses — became so widespread, including for milder diseases. Conis discusses the cultural, political, and social forces that have shaped mass vaccination."]Coombs, Wayne. "Analysis: The Pharmaceutical Colonization of Appalachia." The Daily Yonder (February 7, 2018) ["To fight the opioid epidemic, first we need to identify the enemy. Research on the theory of historical trauma – affecting entire populations and regions – could point us toward more effective treatment."]
Cooper, Anderson. "Psilocybin Sessions: Psychedelics could help people with addiction and anxiety." 60 Minutes (December 29, 2019)
Coppins, McKay. "Pandemic Propaganda." On the Media (March 13, 2020) ["After weeks of downplaying the COVID-19 outbreak and overstating his administration's response, President Trump shifted to a more serious tone in Wednesday's national address. Over the past week, the president claimed that health officials were prepared to deploy millions of tests, and that his White House wasted no time in slowing the spread of the virus. If only. South Korea, which discovered its first COVID-19 patient around the same time as the US, is testing 10,000 people a day, roughly the same number of people tested in the US total since mid-January. Meanwhile, there are widespread reports of tests delayed and denied because of shortages of kits and personnel. And, accounts by unnamed sources close to the President say he resisted offers by domestic labs to produce virus tests — because he didn’t like the “optics” of "national emergency" that steeply rising numbers would imply. These discrepancies and contradictions between what the president, his media allies, critical journalists, and other high-ranking officials say is a tiresome pattern that has defined Trump's time in office. According to McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic, our current state of information overload is called "censorship through noise": a propaganda strategy that has largely protected the president from accountability, but one that leaves us deeply vulnerable during our current public health crisis. Coppins and Brooke discuss the partisan distrust in COVID-19 news and the empty rhetoric from the White House."]
"Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Online Archive)
Craven, Jasper. "Veterans of Domestic Wars." The Baffler #51 (April 2020) ["On the home front, vets battle for decent health care."]
Crawford-Roberts, Ann, et al. "George Floyd's Autopsy and the Structural Gaslighting of America." Scientific American (June 6, 2020) ["The weaponization of medical language emboldened white supremacy with the authority of the white coat. How will we stop it from happening again?"]
Cuellar, Claudia, Phil Donahue and Tomas Young. "Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Explains Decision to End His Life." Democracy Now (March 21, 2013)
Cullors, Patrisse and Ken Rosenberg. "Bedlam: Film Shows How Decades of Healthcare Underfunding Made Jails 'De Facto Mental Asylums.'" Democracy Now (December 27, 2019) ["Are prisons and jails America’s “new asylums”? A new documentary looks at how a disproportionate number of underserved people facing mental health challenges have been swept into the criminal justice system, where they lack adequate treatment. Nearly 15% of men and more than 30% of women in jails have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. For many of them, jail is their first point of entry into mental health treatment. The documentary “Bedlam” was filmed over five years in Los Angeles County’s overwhelmed and vastly under-resourced Emergency Psychiatry Services, a jail warehousing thousands of psychiatric patients, and the homes — and homeless encampments — of people who are living with severe mental illness. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on PBS “Independent Lens” this April. The film features many people, including Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who share their personal experiences with family members’ chronic psychiatric conditions that have pushed them into the path of police officers, ER doctors and nurses, lawyers and prison guards. We speak with Cullors, who shares her experience with seeking help for her brother Monte, who has lived with schizoaffective disorder since he was a teenager, and director Ken Rosenberg, an addiction psychiatrist affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City whose own sister struggled with schizophrenia."]
Datta, Deblina, et al. "Guard Us All? Immigrant Women and the HPV Vaccine." Making Contact (July 29, 2009)
Davis, Mike. "On Coronavirus in a Plague Year." Jacobin (March 14, 2020) ["As coronavirus spreads rapidly around the world, outpacing our capacity for testing let alone treatment, the long-anticipated monster is finally at the door. And with global capitalism so impotent in the face of this biological crisis, our demands must be for properly international public-health infrastructure."]
Dayen, David. "The Dialysis Industry is Spending $111 Million To Argue That Regulating It Would Put It Out of Business." The Intercept (October 31, 2018)
Docherty, Neil, et al. "Supplements and Safety." Frontline 34.3 (January 19, 2016) ["Frontline, The New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation examine the hidden dangers of vitamins and supplements, a multibillion-dollar industry with limited FDA oversight."]
Dowd, Sarah. "One Mask for Five 12-Hour Shifts: Harlem Hospital Nurses Demand Better Protection Amid Pandemic." Democracy Now (April 6, 2020) ["As New York state’s death toll from coronavirus passes 4,000, nurses and medical workers on the frontlines in New York City are protesting for better protections. We go to a demonstration outside Harlem Hospital to speak with Sarah Dowd, a registered nurse who works in its medical/surgical unit and has been treating COVID-19-positive patients. She is a member of the New York State Nurses Association union. “This is not a time for people to be sitting on the sidelines,” Dowd says. “We need to make big demands of the system.”"]
Duhigg, Charles. "A Tale of Two Cities." On the Media (May 15, 2020) ["Opacity, we know, is antithetical to public health in a pandemic. But there are more ways to undermine public trust and cooperation than suppressing bad news. Because when news is bad — or simply uncertain — human behavior can go in all the wrong directions. Fortunately, public health authorities have been through this before. From polio in the 1950s through H1N1 in 2009 and Ebola from 2014 to 2016, their experience has coalesced into a compendium of best practices for informing the public: a literal playbook published by the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. It’s dedicated to the dos — and the please, please, please don’ts — of pandemic communications. In a recent New Yorker article, Charles Duhigg, host of the podcast How To! With Charles Duhigg, wrote the tale of two cities, Seattle and New York, struck back to back with coronavirus outbreaks. One city’s leaders followed the CDC guidelines to the letter. The other’s... did not. Duhigg and Bob discuss the cities' experiences, and the lessons they offer as the virus continues to spread."]
"Dying in a Leadership Vacuum." New England Journal of Medicine (October 8, 2020)
Ea, Prince. "Choose Your Friends with Caution." (Video: July 7, 2018)Eban, Katherine. "Bottle of Lies: How Poor FDA Oversight & Fraud in Generic Drug Industry Threaten Patients’ Health." Democracy Now (May 20, 2019) ["Generic drugs amount to 90% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S., most of them made in plants in India and China. Generic drugs can be more affordable, but in her new explosive book “Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom,” investigative journalist Katherine Eban works with two industry whistleblowers to expose how some manufacturers are cutting corners at the cost of quality and safety. This comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration just issued its own update on the state of pharmaceutical quality that found the drug quality of factories in India and China scored below the world average. FDA officials say that’s because more robust inspections have uncovered problems and that “the quality of the drug supply has never been higher.”"]
Enjeti, Saagar. "Revealed: How Big Soda Smeared Opponents as Racist." Breaking Points (Posted on Youtube: January 5, 2023) ["Saagar gives his take on new information coming out on how large companies like Coke pushed organizations like the NAACP to smear opponents of their priorities as racist."]
Fadiman, Dorothy. "Motherhood by Choice Not Chance." Making Contact (March 11, 2014) ["Before it was legal in the United States, some doctors would risk arrest to provide women with access to safe abortions. When that wasn’t possible, some sought abortions from unsafe providers, often with deadly consequences. The Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, and the numbers of people dying after having an abortion dropped, but are we now seeing a return to the past? ... what can the time before abortion was legal tell us about the dangers of restricting access to abortion today? We’ll hear a special radio adaption of “Motherhood by Choice not Chance” a documentary produced and narrated by Dorothy Fadiman.
Fernandez, Toniann. "White Man On a Pedestal." Paris Review (November 29, 2017)
Fitzpatrick, Megan C., et al. "Improving the Prognosis of Healthcare in America." The Lancet (February 15, 2020) ["Although health care expenditure per capita is higher in the USA than in any other country, more than 37 million Americans do not have health insurance, and 41 million more have inadequate access to care. Efforts are ongoing to repeal the Affordable Care Act which would exacerbate health-care inequities. By contrast, a universal system, such as that proposed in the Medicare for All Act, has the potential to transform the availability and efficiency of American health-care services. Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US$450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017). The entire system could be funded with less financial outlay than is incurred by employers and households paying for health-care premiums combined with existing government allocations. This shift to single-payer health care would provide the greatest relief to lower-income households. Furthermore, we estimate that ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more than 68 000 lives and 1·73 million life-years every year compared with the status quo."]
France, David and Peter Staley. "How to Survive a Plague": As ACT UP Turns 25, New Film Chronicles History of AIDS Activism in U.S." Democracy Now (March 23, 2012)
Gaffney, Adam. "Bill of Health: How Market Logic Hobbles Our Nation's Hospitals." The Baffler #52 (July 2020) ["The consequences of this profit-oriented financing system is a combination of deprivation and excess. That kind of inequality of health care supply has a name. In 1971, the British general practitioner Julian Tudor Hart coined a phrase, the “inverse care law,” that describes it well. “The availability of good medical care,” he wrote in The Lancet, “tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served.” Those who need care the most, that is to say, have the least access to it. ... As Hart noted, the “inverse care law operates more completely where medical care is most exposed to market forces, and less so where such exposure is reduced.” As such, the inverse care law is today in operation in the United States like no other high-income nation. But we can change that. We could fund new hospitals and new health infrastructure not from profits, but from the public purse, something that the Medicare for All bills now in Congress, particularly the House version, would achieve. Hospital expansion would then be premised on the basis of health needs, not market logic."]
---. "Crisis and Opportunity." Dissent (Spring 2018) ["A society’s health—and healthcare system—serves as a window into its soul: it sheds light on the balance of class power, on political struggles long settled and still underway, and on who the society privileges and who it lets die."]
---. "A History of Putting a Price on Everything: Why policymakers calculate the cost of life and death, sickness and health." The New Republic (December 1, 2017)
---. "'The Status Quo is Not Sustainable': : How Medicare for All Would Fill Gaps in Obamacare Coverage." Democracy Now (April 2, 2019) ["As Trump attacks the Affordable Care Act, we look at the growing case for Medicare for all. More than 100 Democratic lawmakers co-sponsored a House bill last month to dramatically revamp healthcare in the United States by creating a Medicare-for-all system funded by the federal government. The bill would expand Medicare to include dental, vision and long-term care, while making the federally run health program available to all Americans. It would also eliminate health insurance premiums, copayments and deductibles."]
---. "What the Doctors Ordered." The Baffler (February 19, 2020) ["Once opponents of universal health care, medical professionals may now help win it."]
Galvani, Alison. "Yale Study Says Medicare for All Would Save U.S. $450 Billion, Prevent Nearly 70,000 Deaths a Year." Democracy Now (February 19, 2020) ["As the Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare to take to the debate stage tonight, we turn to a central issue of the campaign: Medicare for All. In a new study, Yale scholars have found that Medicare for All will save Americans more than $450 billion and prevent 68,000 deaths every year. The study in The Lancet — one of the oldest and most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals — found that Medicare for All, supported by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will save money and is more cost-effective than “Medicare for All Who Want It, “a model supported by Pete Buttigieg. Sanders referenced the study at a campaign rally in Carson City, Nevada. For more, we go to New Haven, Connecticut, where we’re joined by Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at Yale’s School of Public Health. She is the lead author of the new Lancet study, “Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA.”"]
Gawande, Atul. "What Matters in the End?" On Being (October 26, 2017) ["What does a good day look like? This is the question that transformed Atul Gawande's practice of medicine. He's a citizen physician on the frontiers of human agency and meaning in light of what modern medicine makes possible. In his writing in The New Yorker, and in his book Being Mortal, he's opening a new conversation about what dying has to do with living."]
Gerard, Lydia, Sharon Lavigne and Pam Spees. "Combating Corporate Contamination in Cancer Alley." The Activist Files #14 (May 9, 2019) ["Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees talks with Lydia Gerard and Sharon Lavigne, two of the brave Women of Cancer Alley leading the resistance to the toxic petrochemical industry in Louisiana. Cancer Alley is an 85-mile stretch of land with a high concentration of petrochemical companies. It also is populated by primarily Black communities with high rates of health problems, including respiratory problems, the highest risk of cancer in the country, and even unexplained health problems. Both women share their personal stories--the difficulties Sharon's grandchildren have had breathing, Lydia's loss of her husband to kidney cancer--and the way those experiences fueled their fight in the face of indifferent corporations and lackluster government action. Later this month, many of those involved in this struggle will participate in a March for Justice, demanding government action--including the reduction of emissions, a moratorium on new plants, and the closer of certain existing plants. Give the episode a listen, and spread the word about this important fight for racial and environmental justice."]
Glanville, Phillipa. "The Dichotomies of Drink: The History of Alcohol 1690 - 1920." The National Archive Podcast Series (September 28, 2006)
Glenza, Jessica. "The One-Woman Lobby Machine Behind the 'Heartbeat' Bills." On the Media (May 17, 2019) ["For decades, the anti-abortion movement has tried to chip away at Roe v. Wade by putting up obstacles to abortion access through restrictions on clinics. Now the tactics seem to be shifting, as evidenced by this week's new abortion ban in Alabama and a series of so-called "heartbeat" bills passed in several states in recent months. For nearly a decade, Janet Porter has been a one-woman lobbying machine with her group Faith2Action. She's railed against gay marriage, advocated for "conversion therapy," and championed the racist birther conspiracy theory. She has also been pushing for a so-called "heartbeat" bill which would ban abortions after six weeks, a move that used to divide abortion groups. Jessica Glenza is a health reporter from The Guardian who recently profiled Porter. This week, she spoke to Bob about why the term "heartbeat" bill is misleading and what Porter's tactics and politics tell us about how anti-abortion groups are operating."]
Golden, Janet, et al. "Winning the messaging war for a just, moral health care system." Best of the Left #1316 (November 1, 2019)
Gostin, Lawrence. "WHO Adviser on Meat Plants: If We’re at War, the Weapons We Need Are Tests and PPE, Not Pork." Democracy Now (April 30, 2020) ["As President Trump invokes the Defense Production Act to bar local governments from closing meatpacking plants around the United States, we get response from a longtime adviser to the World Health Organization. “When Congress passed that act, it certainly did not have in mind that the president has the power or the right to put workers’ lives and health at risk,” says Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Center on National and Global Health Law. Gostin also discusses why he joined 40 leading center directors in a declaration this week that urges Trump and Congress to restore and increase WHO funding."]
Hamblin, James. "What Will You Do If You Start Coughing: 'Stay Home' Is Not a Sufficient Plan." The Atlantic (March 11, 2020)
Hari, Johann. "How the 'Junk Values' of Neoliberalism Drive Depression and Anxiety in the U.S." Democracy Now (February 1, 2018) ["The United States is one of the most depressed countries in the world. Could it be because of the country’s adoption of neoliberal economic policies? We speak to Johann Hari, author of a controversial new book, “Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions.” He writes, 'Junk food has taken over our diets, and it is making millions of people physically sick. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that something similar is happening with our minds—that they have become dominated by junk values, and this is making us mentally sick, triggering soaring rates of depression and anxiety.'"]
Henrietta Lacks." Radio Lab (April 18, 2017) ["With all the recent talk about HBO's upcoming film, we decided it would be good time to re-run our story of one woman's medically miraculous cancer cells, and how Henrietta Lacks changed modern science and, eventually, her family's understanding of itself."]
I explain if common preventatives and treatments such as vitamin C, zinc, vitamin D and echinacea work. I also highlight other compounds known to reduce contracting and duration of colds and flu. I discuss how to use exercise and sauna to bolster the immune response. This episode will help listeners understand how to reduce the chances of catching a cold or flu and help people recover more quickly from and prevent the spread of colds and flu."]
Jayapal, Pramila. "Medicare for All Will Lower Costs & Expand Healthcare Coverage to Everyone." Democracy Now (March 6, 2019) ["More than 100 Democratic lawmakers are co-sponsoring a new House bill to dramatically revamp healthcare in the United States by creating a Medicare-for-all system funded by the federal government. This comes at a time when as many as 30 million Americans have no health insurance and tens of millions more are either underinsured or struggling to pay their health insurance premiums."]
Kalafa, Amy. "Lunch Wars." Radio West (August 23, 2011)
Kaptchuk, Ted. "All The World's A Stage—Including The Doctor's Office." Hidden Brain (April 29, 2019) ["... we consider what it means to be sick and what it means to heal, and the powerful tool that modern medicine has overlooked."]
Kim, Tae. "Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'" CNBC (April 11, 2018)
Landman, Anne. "What Happened to Media Coverage of Fukushima?" Common Dreams (June 24, 2011)
Langer, Ellen. "Is Mindfulness the Secret to Health?" Big Brains (July 11, 2024) ["Can you heal faster just by tricking your brain? Could you lose weight with only a change of mindset? Could you think yourself into being younger? If you think the answer to all these questions is no, you haven’t read the research from renowned Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer."]
LaPook, Jonathan. "Could gene therapy cure sickle cell anemia?" 60 Minutes (December 29, 2019) ["An NIH clinical trial is ushering in a genetic revolution as an innovative type of gene therapy is used to attempt to cure sickle cell anemia."]
Lee, Kelly, Martin McKee and Mark P. Pettigrew. "Type A Behavior Pattern and Coronary Heart Disease: Philip Morris’s 'Crown Jewel.'" American Journal of Public Health 102.11 (November 2012): 2018 -2025.
Levey, Noam. "Keeping Eyes on the Supply Chain." On the Media (April 10, 2020) ["Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the agencies and organizations tasked with facing decisions between expediency and transparency have sometimes chosen the former. Cities in California, and now Chicago, have asked their states for relief from sunshine law deadlines. Hospitals have instructed their employees to refrain from speaking to the media; some have even recommended avoiding social media altogether. And as FEMA ferries medical supplies to hot spots across the country, journalists such as Los Angeles Times national healthcare reporter Noam Levey are having a hard time getting answers to questions about its plans and practices. On April 2nd, White House advisor Peter Navarro — standing on a podium with the president, the president's son-in-law, the vice president, and others — assured Americans: "These guys up here are doing a heckuva job organizing the supply chain." But as Levey explains to Brooke in this segment, that would be news to many of the medical providers and producers that he's spoken with in recent weeks. "]
---. "Toward a Healthy Society." Equal Time for Freethought (June 4, 2011)
Levine, James. "The Dangers of Inactivity." Radio West (July 4, 2019) ["Chances are good you’re sitting down as you read these words. After hearing what Dr. James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, has to say about sitting, you might find yourself standing a lot more. That’s because Dr. Levine’s research suggests that spending most of your day sitting and physically inactive -- at work, at home and everywhere else -- won’t just give you a sore back: there’s a good chance it could lead you to an early grave. Dr. Levine joins us Wednesday to explain the dangers of inactivity."]
Lifton, Robert Jay. "Malignant Normality." Dissent (Spring 2017) ["Extreme ideologues do much to create a malignant normality, which comes to pervade most institutions, including medical ones. Then ordinary people who work in those institutions adhere to that normality, often aided by bits and pieces of the extreme ideology. The prevailing normality can be decisive because it excludes alternatives and provides strong pressures for destructive behavior."]
Lovera, Patty. "Cargill Meat Recall Heightens Fears Budgets Cuts Will Weaken Oversight, Threaten Public Health." Democracy Now (August 5, 2011)
Lyon, Gabrielle. "How to Exercise & Eat for Optimal Health & Longevity." The Huberman Lab (June 24, 2024) ["In this episode, my guest is Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, D.O., a board-certified physician who did her clinical and research training at Washington University in geriatrics and nutrition. She is also an expert in how diet and exercise impact muscle and whole-body health and longevity. Dr. Lyon is a bestselling author and public educator. We discuss how healthy skeletal muscle promotes longevity, brain health, disease prevention, ideal body composition, and the health of other organs and bodily systems. She makes specific nutritional recommendations for optimal health: what to eat, how much to eat, the timing of meals, the essential need for adequate quality protein (including animal and plant-based options), supplementation, and how our dietary requirements change with age. She explains why specific types of resistance training are essential to build and maintain muscle and overall metabolic health. She also describes how to include resistance training as part of your exercise regimen — regardless of age or sex. She also provides specific mindset tools to encourage sustained adherence to healthy eating and exercise practices. Women and men of all ages will benefit from Dr. Lyon’s practical, evidence-based protocols to improve muscle and whole-body appearance, function, and health."]
Magdoff, Fred. "Food as a Commodity." Monthly Review (January 1, 2012)
Marcotte, Amanda. "Christian Intruders: New Law Will Force Women to Listen to Religious Lectures Before Getting an Abortion." AlterNet (March 23, 2011)
Mata, Alas and Baj Mukhopadhyay. "A Gathering of Radical Health Workers." Talking Radical Radio (June 18, 2019) ["Baj Mukhopadhyay is a physician who is based in Montreal and practices mainly in remote and Indigenous communities in northern Quebec. He also writes about and is active in grassroots politics related to struggles around resource extraction, migrant justice, and health. Bilal Mamdani is an organizer with a long history of involvement in land defence, water protection, and struggles against resource extraction, and he is currently a medical student studying in southern Ontario. And Alas Mata is an Emergency Medical Technician based in southern California and a member of Frontline Medics, a collective of medically trained women of colour committed to providing communities of resistance with aid and support. Scott Neigh interviews them about the recent Liberation Health Convergence."]
Mate, Gabor. "More Compassion, Less Violence Needed in Addressing Drug Addiction. Democracy Now (June 6, 2011)
---. "Obama Admin Should Heed Global Panel’s Call to End "Failed" U.S.-Led Drug War." Democracy Now (June 6, 2011)
Mazhukhina, Karina. "Washington to implement best paid family & medical leave in America in 2019." KATU2 (November 30, 2018)
McGreal, Chris (read by Lucy Scott). "The Making of an Opioid Epidemic." Audio Long Reads (December 3, 2018) ["When high doses of painkillers led to widespread addiction, it was called one of the biggest mistakes in modern medicine. But this was no accident."]
McNeil, Leila, et al. "Pilot!" Lady Science #1 (2017) ["In our pilot episode, learn about Lady Science Magazine, meet its editors, and join our discussion about the history of nursing. We discuss the mythic representation of Florence Nightingale, and historian of science Jenna Tonn joins us to talk about the historical roots of the "naughty nurse" trope."]
Means, Casey. "Transform Your Health by Improving Metabolism, Hormone & Blood Sugar Regulation." Huberman Lab (May 6, 2024) ["In this episode, my guest is Dr. Casey Means, MD, a physician trained at Stanford University School of Medicine, an expert on metabolic health and the author of the book, Good Energy. We discuss how to leverage nutrition, exercise and environmental factors to enhance your metabolic health by improving mitochondrial function, hormone and blood sugar regulation. We also explore how fasting, deliberate cold exposure and spending time in nature can impact metabolic health, how to control food cravings and how to assess your metabolic health using blood testing, continuous glucose monitors and other tools. Metabolic dysfunction is a leading cause of chronic disease, obesity and reduced lifespan around the world. Conversely, improving your mitochondrial and metabolic health can positively affect your health span and longevity. Listeners of this episode will learn low- and zero-cost tools to improve their metabolic health, physical and mental well-being, body composition and target the root cause of various common diseases."]
Merchants of Doubt (USA: Kim Roberts and Robert Kenner, 2014: 93 mins) ["Merchants of Doubt looks at the well established Public Relations tactic of saturating the media with shills who present themselves as independent scientific authorities on issues in order to cast doubt in the public mind. The film looks at how this tactic, that was originally developed by the tobacco industry to obfuscate the health risks of smoking, has since come to cloud other issues such as the pervasiveness of toxic chemicals, flame retardants, asbestos, certain pharmaceutical drugs and now, climate change. Using the icon of a magician, Merchants of Doubt explores the analogy between these tactics and the methods used by magicians to distract their audiences from observing how illusions are performed. For example, with the tobacco industry, the shills successfully delayed government regulation until long after the health risks from smoking was unequivocally proven. Likewise with manufacturers of flame retardants, who worked to protect their sales after the toxic effects and pervasiveness of the chemicals were discovered. This is all made analogous to the ongoing use of these very same tactics to forestall governmental action in regards to global climate change today."]
Mullainathan, Sendhil and Eldar Shafir. "The Scarcity Trap: Why We Keep Digging When We're Stuck In A Hole." Hidden Brain (April 2, 2018)
Nestle, Marion, et al. "Let's Ask Marion: What You Need to Know about the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health (University of California Press, 2020)." New Books in Food (January 13, 2021) ["Marion Nestle describes her new book as “a small, quick and dirty reader for the general audience” summarizing some of her biggest and most influential works. Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know About the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health published September 2020 by University of California Press, was written in conversation with Kerry Trueman, a blogger and friend. Trueman’s questions served as prompts to organize Nestle’s 800-1000 word summaries in approachable and engaging prose. Readers familiar with Nestle’s groundbreaking Food Politics will recognize many of the ideas and information, but this new pocket-sized and affordable volume serves as an introduction for undergraduate students or readers new to Food Studies. However, Nestle does cover some new material in her explanation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, especially the campaign for Zero Hunger. Nestle also summarizes how nutrition advice has changed in the last few years by thinking about food in categories ranging from unprocessed (corn on the cob) to ultraprocessed (Nacho Cheese tortilla chips). This reevaluation makes it easier to identify foods that are acceptable to eat without excessive focus on micronutrients. In the conversation, Nestle addresses the ethics of marketing food to children, food as a human right and access in the Covid era, the possibility of a National Food Policy Agency, the politics of food banks, and the promise of regenerative agricultural practices. Nestle concludes by talking about the pleasures of food and eating and how to establish a “loving relationship” with food that doesn’t include fear, guilt, or anxiety about nutrition. Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, and the author of books about food politics, most recently Unsavory Truth."]
Neuwirth, Jessica and Leana Wen. "'A Shameful Week for the U.S.: : Trump Admin Guts U.N. Resolution to End Rape as Weapon of War." Democracy Now (April 26, 2019) ["The Trump administration is under fire after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution to end rape as a weapon of war on Tuesday that excluded any mention of sexual and reproductive health. The resolution was gutted after the U.S. threatened to veto the measure altogether unless language referencing reproductive health was taken out due to the Trump administration’s belief that the language was code for abortion. The watered-down measure also weakened references to the International Criminal Court, making it harder for women and girls to seek justice. We speak with Jessica Neuwirth, director of the Human Rights Program at Roosevelt House at Hunter College and the director of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. She sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo protesting the U.S. stance on the Security Council resolution. We also speak with Planned Parenthood President Dr. Leana ." ]Norton, Blake and Sophie Novack. "Texas Woman: I Was Forced to Consent to Bury Fetal Remains After Miscarriage in 'Horrific' Ordeal." Democracy Now (April 25, 2018) ["Last week, a U.S. appeals court declared unconstitutional an Indiana law signed by then-Governor, now Vice President, Mike Pence, that requires fetuses to be buried or cremated. This comes as Texas passed a law last year saying all fetal remains had to be buried or cremated, and also banned donation of that tissue for research purposes. In January, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra temporarily halted the fetal remains law, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has vowed to continue fighting for it. For more, we speak with Blake Norton, who had a miscarriage in 2015 at the Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, and was forced to choose whether she would let the hospital bury the remains in a shared grave, or arrange for a “private burial” at her own expense. We’re also joined by Texas Observer reporter Sophie Novack, whose cover story about Blake Norton is headlined 'Indoctrinated: A Catholic hospital in Austin forces patients who miscarry to consent to fetal burials. For one woman, that made a painful loss even worse—and she worries it could soon become routine across Texas.'"]
Orleck, Annelise, et al. "Worker protections help (almost) everyone (Labor Rights)." Best of the Left #1263 (April 9, 2019) ["Today we take a look at the overwhelming benefits to society of labor, health and safety regulations and how the only people who don't come out ahead are those who have to pay for them."]
Partanen, Anu and Jay Tomlinson. "The Nordic Theory of Love." The Best of the Left #142 (March 1, 2019) ["The Nordic theory of love and independence with the author of The Nordic Theory of Everything."]
Patel, Dhruvin. "Will Technology Ruin Your Child's Development?" Thrive Global (March 4, 2017)
PLoS Blogs Network ["PLoS (stands for the Public Library of Science a non profit publisher and advocacy organization on a mission to lead a transformation in research communication) has always engaged in debate about science and medicine. Starting with the launch of our main blog, plos.org, back in 2006, PLoS quickly realized how informal communication can catch readers’ attention. PLoS ONE then launched their journal blog, everyONE in March 2009. Two months later, the editors of PLoS Medicine started Speaking of Medicine to interact with those interested in global health. PLoS Blogs has been set up to bring a select group of independent science and medicine bloggers together with the editors and staff who run our blogs. Our independent network is made up of writers who love science and medicine, and scientists and physicians that love to write. Here, you’ll find an equal mix of blogs from journalists and researchers tackling diverse issues in science and medicine."]
Pollitt, Katha. "Birth Control: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." The Nation (August 15, 2011)
Posner, Sarah. "Arizona’s 20 Week Abortion Ban Is Latest Attack on Women’s Reproductive Rights." Uprising Radio (April 17, 2012)
Pray, Jennifer. "Embodied Feminism." Feminist Killjoys #61 (2017) ["“Even though a space is female-dominated doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a space where it’s about female empowerment." -J. Pray In this episode, Melody talks with Jennifer Pray, a Twin Cities-based dance artist and yoga teacher. Jennifer discusses how her dance and yoga work intersect with each other and with feminism. More specifically, Jennifer digs into what an embodied feminism can look like. A lot of good gems to listen for."]
Presser, Lizzie. "When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested." Pro Publica (October 16, 2019) ["Welcome to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the judge has no law degree, debt collectors get a cut of the bail, and Americans are watching their lives — and liberty — disappear in the pursuit of medical debt collection."]
Raworth, Kate. "Doughnut Economics." The Next System #2 (August 23, 2017) ["Adam talks with Kate Raworth about her Doughnut Economics model. The pair discuss economic justice, unpaid labor, the commons, and much more."]
Richards, Cecile. "'A War on Women': GOP Bills Targeting Abortion and Reproductive Rights." Democracy Now (February 16, 2011)
Sanford, Matthew. "The Body's Grace." On Being (May 3, 2012)
Scarleteen ["Scarleteen is an independent, grassroots sexuality education and support organization and website. Founded in 1998, Scarleteen.com is visited by around three-quarters of a million diverse people each month worldwide, most between the ages of 15 and 25. It is the highest-ranked website for sex education and sexuality advice online and has held that rank through most of its tenure." For an extensive/detailed explanation of the website's purpose"]
Schlosser, Eric. "Why Being a Foodie Isn't Elitist." The Washington Post (April 27, 2011)
Schulman, Sarah. "AIDs and Gentrification." Against the Grain (November 20, 2012) ["It’s only been a decade and a half since the height of the AIDS epidemic. Yet there’s profound amnesia about what happened during those years, in which hundreds of thousands of people died in this country, ignored by a government that only helped those with the disease after being forced through direct action. Writer Sarah Schulman argues that AIDS paved the way for massive gentrification in cities like New York and San Francisco. She describes the erasure of a liberatory queer culture and its replacement with a conservative one."]
Schure, Natalia, et al. "Gearing Up for the Fight for Medicare for All." Best of the Left #1260 (March 29, 2019)
Shahshahani, Azadeh and Dawn Wooten. "Whistleblower Nurse in ICE Jail Alleges Forced Sterilization & Neglect Amid 8th COVID Death." Democracy Now (September 22, 2020) ["As ICE confirms the 20th person to die in its detention in fiscal year 2020, making it one of the deadliest periods in the agency’s history, we talk to the whistleblower at the center of an explosive complaint that accuses an ICE jail in Georgia of failing to adhere to coronavirus safety protocols and performing a large number of unwanted hysterectomies on detainees. The doctor who carried out the procedures became known to women inside the facility as “the uterus collector.” Whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center, says the neglect and abuse at the facility was “jaw-dropping.” We also speak with Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South, who says authorities must take action now. “What else would it take for decision makers to finally move and do something about this before we see additional tragedies at these facilities?” she says."]
Song, Lisa. "Sudden Shift at a Public Health Journal Leaves Scientists Feeling Censored." Pro Publica (November 20, 2017) ["Claiming overreach by a new publisher, the journal’s editorial board asks for disciplinary action from the National Library of Medicine."]
Stahl, Lesley. "How the NYU School of Medicine is going tuition-free." 60 Minutes (December 29, 2019)
Strether, Lambert. "Class and Beyond: Case-Deaton’s 'Deaths of Despair,' Embodiment, and Neoliberal Epidemics." Naked Capitalism (December 11, 2017)
Tuma, Mary. "Texas Anti-Choice Legislation Continues to Damage Health Care and Undermine Local Control." The Austin Chronicle (May 17, 2019) ["As GOP postures with SB 22, women’s health care pays the price."]
Washington, Harriet. ""Deadly Monopolies": ... How Firms are Taking Over Life Itself." Democracy Now (October 31, 2011)
Way, Niobe, et al. "Guys, We Have A Problem: How American Masculinity Creates Lonely Men." Hidden Brain (March 19, 2018)
White, Judith B., et al. "Frequent Social Comparisons and Destructive Emotions and Behaviors: The Dark Side of Social Comparisons." Journal of Adult Development 13.1 (March 2006)
Wilkinson, Richard. "How Economic Inequality Harms Societies." TED Talks (November 2, 2011)
Wilson, Bee (read by Ruth Barnes). "Yes, Bacon Really is Killing Us." Audio Long Reads (December 25, 2018) ["Decades’ worth of research proves that chemicals used to make bacon do cause cancer. So how did the meat industry convince us it was safe?"]
Winant, Gabriel. "Coronavirus and Chronopolitics: The Young are Trying to Save the Old." N+1 #37 (Spring 2020)
Zaroff, Larry. "Medicine and the Human Condition." Entitled Opinions (November 23, 2011)
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